Author Archive: Stephen Green
July 15, 2020
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Give Up Hope, All Ye Who Entered 2020—The Year Is Dead. “I watched my first baseball game of the year yesterday so you’d think I’d be more upbeat. Sure, it was just an intrasquad Dodgers game, but it was baseball. What I think will probably happen is that they’ll start playing, a few guys will test positive, and then MLB pulls the plug on the season. Same with the other sports.”
LET’S GET BACK TO WORK: Most PPP recipients expect to run out of money by August, study finds.
HOLLOWING OUT SILICON VALLEY: Tech companies are ending leases and consolidating offices as remote work is here to stay.
THE NEW ‘MODERATE’ LOOKS AN AWFUL LOT LIKE THE OLD ‘RADICAL’: Joe Biden Releases $2 Trillion ‘Climate Agenda’ Inspired By Green New Deal.
DECOUPLE FASTER: Boris Johnson fails to stave off Huawei rebellion as Tory MPs call for tougher measures. “Rebels to table series of amendments when legislation comes to Parliament in the autumn as they seek more concessions.”
July 14, 2020
POST-POSTWAR JAPAN: China Provocations Hasten Japan’s Military Revival.
China’s ascent has reshaped security policies across the Asia-Pacific region. Australia recently detailed $186 billion in high-tech defense spending over the next 10 years and, along with India, it is drawing closer to Japan and the U.S. through military drills and cooperation. South Korea is boosting spending on jet fighters after incidents such as one last year when Seoul accused Russian and Chinese bombers of intruding into its airspace and scrambled fighters in response. On Monday, the U.S. offered support to its allies in the region by formally opposing Chinese claims in the South China Sea.
Nowhere has the impact been stronger than in Japan. Its military is now one of the world’s best-equipped and trained, increasingly visible on exercises around the globe. A close partner of the U.S., Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has moved the country away from its strict pacifism during his 8½ years in power over two stints. China’s military rise, along with the threat of North Korean missiles, has been a major catalyst.
In March of last year, Japan opened military bases on Amami-Oshima, the island shadowed by the Chinese submarine, and on another island further south, both equipped with antiship and surface-to-air missiles. Another base is planned for a third island. In 2016, it added a military radar station on one of its islands closest to China.
Other investments designed primarily to protect Japan’s islands include the largest fleet of F-35 fighters outside the U.S. and a network of satellites capable of guiding newly procured cruise missiles to shoebox-sized targets. Annual military spending lags far behind China, but under Mr. Abe it has risen by 10%.
Beijing has no one to blame but themselves.
YES. NEXT QUESTION? Has Democratic Party’s Far Left Hijacked Joe Biden’s Presidential Campaign?
YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: The World Turned Right Side Up. “At this point, if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were to get on Twitter today to announce that she was actually a chihuahua named Carlos, Insanity Wrap posits that it would be a step up on the 2020 Sanity Scale.”
MY LATEST FOR THE PJMEDIA MOTHERSHIP: Democrats Are Running a Massive Protection Racket in 2020, Not a Campaign. “The national party is a protection racket so big and so vicious it would fill Tony Soprano’s dark little heart with envy.”
This one is for our VIP members, so if you’ve been thinking of joining, you can do so here — and don’t forget to use that VODKAPUNDIT discount code.
THE HEADLINE: Three Arizona teachers who shared a classroom got coronavirus. One of them died.
Six paragraphs down: “She was prone to sinus infections, and also had asthma, diabetes and lupus.”
HMM: Immunity to covid-19 could disappear in months, a new study suggests. “Researchers at King’s College London repeatedly tested 96 patients and health-care workers at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust for antibodies between March and June.”
That’s an awfully small set of patients to study.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Given the major role apparently played by T-cell memory in coronavirus immunity, I’m not sure the antibody tests mean as much as they’re suggesting here.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Change All the Names, Nuke All the Statues—Grievance Wusses Will Still Be Whining. “Back in the Occupy days, I kept saying and writing that the rage was the endgame for them. It’s basically the same now. They keep saying they want change, and I don’t doubt that they would like to affect some political change here and there but that won’t make them any less angry. There is nothing that will make them less angry simply because angry is what they want to be.”
FALLOUT: How Remote Work Could Destroy Silicon Valley. “The tech industry is built on serendipity. If workers flee the Bay Area, what’s left?”
More importantly, the Bay Area is the cash cow that keeps Sacramento afloat. Take those revenues away from the Progressive Democrats, and what’s left?
HIGHER EDUCATION IMPLOSION UPDATE: ‘No college degree required’: Google expands certificate program for in-demand job skills.
UH-HUH: Dr. Anthony Fauci says U.S. coronavirus cases are surging because nation didn’t totally shut down.
A total shutdown was not possible, and would only have flattened the curve beyond what was necessary, anyway.
Daily deaths meanwhile are still trending downward and have been since April.